SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — The flight wasn't on any published schedule, so there was no telling how long the pickup trucks had been waiting at the exit onto the Autopista al Aeropuerto that heads northwest toward the city of San Pedro Sula.

It was around 8 p.m. local time when the U.S. national soccer team's charter finally landed in Honduras on Monday. Street lighting was at a minimum and the motorcade that included a players' bus, police vehicles and a second coach carrying members of the media and a few U.S. Soccer Federation staffers exited the airport grounds and drove into darkness.

The relatively serene scene was short-lived. As the motorcade picked up speed, it was joined by one, then two, then several more pickups carrying cameramen who were standing in the truck beds. At highway speed, these journalists appeared to be risking life and limb to capture video of the back of a bus — at night.

Several dozen more reporters and cameramen awaited the U.S. national team at its hotel, the name and location of which isn't revealed publicly by American officials but which apparently was common knowledge in San Pedro Sula. One newspaper even printed the team's floor and practice schedule, a U.S. Soccer official said.

"I'd like to thank the Honduran federation and everybody involved in getting us here and hosting us here for the nice welcome," U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann said Tuesday. "We are excited because we are starting the final round of World Cup qualifying, with 10 matches ahead of us.

"We start here in Honduras in a sell-out stadium. It's exciting and we are ready for it."

Alongside the stories featuring Klinsmann and the U.S. squad's arrival, Tuesday's newspapers painted a bleak picture of life in this beleaguered Central American country. La Prensa's primary headline concerned the "paralyzing debt" burdening the government, while Tiempo led with a photo depicting two dead men, their hands tied behind them, lying where they were executed on the side of a hill.

According to the U.S. Department of State, Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world (159 per 100,000 residents in 2011) and San Pedro Sula — the country's second-most populous metro area and its industrial capital — is "considered to be the world's most violent city." Even modest (or crumbling) plaster homes with corrugated metal roofs are shielded by iron gates and razor wire.

American reporters (there are more than two dozen) who came down to cover Wednesday's World Cup qualifier between the U.S. and Honduras (4 p.m. ET, BeIN Sport) were advised by the State Department not to leave their hotels.

If the siren song of the Multiplaza Mall — separated from U.S. Soccer's media hotel by about 100 yards worth of parking lot — proved too irresistible, then it was suggested that guests risk the trek only during daylight. And in groups. Trust only those taxi drivers recommended by hotel staff. Keep in mind that "members of the Honduran National Police have been known to engage in criminal activity, such as murder and car theft," the U.S. government added.

It is against this intimidating backdrop that Klinsmann & Co. begin the long, daunting road toward the 2014 World Cup.

The six-team, double round-robin that rewards the top three finishers with trips to Brazil has become a unique and eagerly anticipated feature on the global soccer calendar.

To gauge the Hexagonal's importance south of the border, consider that Wednesday is a national holiday here in Honduras. The Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano seats about 40,000, but millions will be transfixed as neighbors compete against neighbors for a seat at the sport's most prestigious table. Hexagonal games often present challenges that American pros based in MLS or Europe rarely confront with their clubs. Publicizing hotel locations is just the beginning.

The atmosphere at stadiums in Mexico and Central America can be intimidating and even dangerous.

"These teams make it hard for you, not just on the field, but off. It's a hostile environment. All the tricks in the book are pulled out," said U.S. forward Herculez Gomez, who has spent the past three years playing club ball in Mexico. "The mentality is very different. They try to get inside your head."

The tricks will start Wednesday afternoon, maximizing stifling humidity that will challenge even the most modern uniform technology. The U.S., forced to wear navy blue by the white-clad Hondurans, must anticipate the unexpected.

"In terms of batteries being thrown at me and bags of pee, I think I've seen it all. I'm sure we can expect some of that tomorrow," U.S. striker Jozy Altidore said Tuesday. The Hex is "definitely a crazy experience, but it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of things people wouldn't expect that come with the soccer."

Hexagonal history, along with last year's semifinal qualifying round that featured a U.S. loss in Jamaica and a draw in Guatemala, suggests that every road game is a hazard and qualification can't be taken for granted.

"On paper, it looks so easy," goalkeeper Tim Howard said of facing opponents like Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama.

But the Hex isn't played on paper, and that prompts U.S. Soccer to be vigilant in its road-game preparation. Federation officials spend months working with the State Department and the local embassy on armed security and travel issues (a national team motorcade snaking through the streets of San Pedro Sula attracts plenty of attention) and then with hotels on everything from meeting rooms to menus.

The Hex hasn't even started yet, and U.S. Soccer managing director of administration Tom King already has been to Brazil multiple times.

No detail is overlooked. The chartered 737 that ferried the national team from Miami to San Pedro Sula on Monday had the U.S. Soccer logo draped atop each seat.

"We're very lucky," midfielder Michael Bradley said Tuesday. "Between U.S. Soccer and the American government, we always get taken care of very well. Really, from the time we get here to the time we leave, all that's left up to us is to step on the field and give the best possible performance."

Bradley is one of a significant number of U.S. players who flew to Miami from Europe, where they likely had club games over the weekend. They had little time to prepare for a game that means everything to the Honduran national team, anxious to cement its place in the CONCACAF elite with a second consecutive World Cup berth and perhaps even more to this struggling nation. Heading back from the stadium late Tuesday afternoon, the motorcade passed dozens of people playing the game on just about every available patch of earth.

The Hex can test the patience and the will, but Bradley said that with the "World Cup on the horizon" he and his teammates wouldn't have it any other way.

"I enjoy it a lot," he said. "To represent the United States of America in games of this magnitude, it's a dream. An honor. When you come to these countries and you see how much these games mean, how much football means to them, to see the atmosphere of the stadiums and to have the experience of playing in big games like this, this is what you grow up dreaming to do.

"I think every one of us, when we got on that plane yesterday in Miami ready to come down, there's just a real sense of excitement. We look each other in the eye and say, 'All right, here we go.' We know what to expect and we're going to be ready to give it everything we have."